Title: Mukashi no Otoko
Station: TBS
Producer: Yaguchi Hisao, Hashimoto Takashi
Director: Sasaki Akimitsu, Fujio Takashi
Writer: Uchidate Makiko
Actors: Fujiwara Norika, Oosawa Takao, Tomita Yasuko, Abe Hiroshi, Suzuki Azuma, Kurotani Tomoka, Kato Takako
Airs: Fri,22
"Mukashi no Otoko (Old Boyfriend?)", generally considered as the black-horse in the race. Akari Hara (Norika Fujiwara, the japanese lady who acted with Aaron Kwok in the movie) is a 29-year-old lady working in a jewelry store. Her good looks are convenient and she is regularly made to go to parties to model jewelry. But being a jewelry mannequin is not very satisfying work and Akari knows this more than anyone. She is in a relationship with an accountant, Hayato Kitazawa (Takashi Abe) but he is not interested in marriage. Akari is approaching 30 and holds little hope for the future, but she does hold dear one thing - her student relationship with Arashi Ikeda (Takao Ohsawa) - to the point where she cannot erase his number from her mobile phone. Thinking that Arashi won't be there, she goes out to dinner with friends from their university days. But Arashi turns up at the restaurant. Theme song: Endless sorrow (Ayumi Hamasaki)
Norika Fujiwara's role in Mukashi no Otoko (Fridays at 10 p.m. on TBS) seems to be this season's most sultry offering. The story is by Makiko Uchidate, another of Japan's top female scriptwriters. Fujiwara plays a successful business woman who rekindles a romance with her old college lover. He was a happily married man until they meet up at a class reunion. The "old class reunion" is one of the most dangerous devices Japanese scriptwriters wield.
STARRING: Fujiwara Norika, Osawa Takao.
THEME SONG:Endless Sorrow (Hamasaki Ayumi)
NETWORK: TBS
DURATION: April through June 2001